With two years at the helm of the Liberty County Development Authority, CEO Brynn Grant mapped out where the organization is headed. She is tapping into her background in economic development and in community service to chart the course.

Grant, speaking to a recent Liberty County Chamber of Commerce Progress Through People luncheon, pegged the challenges and opportunities that are ahead for the LCDA. A longtime vice president of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, Grant came back home to Liberty County to run the LCDA after a stint as the CEO of the United Way of the Coastal Empire, a time that “opened my mind and opened my eyes,” she said.

“It put me much closer to the front lines of the needs of our community,” Grant said of her time with the United Way. “It connected dots for me. I saw first-hand what that meant. We were helping people to survive in some cases and sometimes with more than one job.”

The United Way has taken a look at what is known as ALICE data — asset-limited, income- constrained, employed — and the LCDA is using those ALICE figures when recruiting prospective industries.

“ALICE is a way of looking at financial hardship,” Grant said. “It informs the work we’re doing at the LCDA and when we’re looking at businesses, offering a wage that will support their lives. That information has been very valuable to us.”

The LCDA also has established a strategic plan and has put together new thresholds for incentives packages when recruiting industries and businesses.

“That ALICE data has supported our decision making in what jobs we provide incentives for and what kinds of jobs we want to attract,” Grant said.

Grant added the LCDA is open to talking about its strategic plan and listening to how it can be advanced.

“Everything in our community is part of the product we market to business,” she said. “It shapes a perception and an experience that businesses are either going to want to invest in or not.”

The LCDA also has joined with the development authorities from Long County and McIntosh County to form the Tri-95 Joint Development Authority, which help the three entities work on projects that have an impact on each. The Savannah Harbor I-16 JDA — made up of Bryan, Bulloch, Chatham and Effingham’s development authorities — helped pave the way for the Hyundai metaplant, the largest single economic development project in state history.

“We see opportunity coming down I-95,” Grant said. “I-95 is one of our greatest assets, not just for Liberty County but for this region. We’re just getting started and we’re enthusiastic about it.”

Challenges and hurdles

The LCDA went to work quickly after the announced closure of the International Paper mill in Riceboro, putting together a job fair for workers about to be jobless with the shutdown.

Grant said the LCDA thought the mill closure was likely after International Paper bought the DS Smith operation in Riceboro. The shutdown of the massive mill in Savannah was the shocker.

“This year has been a tough year, losing International Paper,” she said. “We did everything we could to help make them as competitive as possible. It was way beyond us.”

The development authority has been in talks with International Paper about the future of the site, and it held a summit with forestry industry leaders as a result of those mills, and others in the state, closing.

The LCDA also is working on how to provide water and sewer to potential customers. Grant said the days of industries waiting on their utilities to be put in place “are long, long gone.”

“If you don’t have water and sewer and roads and power to a site, they’re moving on,” she added. “They don’t have time to wait for it. Those sites have to be ready.”

The LCDA is building a road into its Tradeport West property, its expansive holdings off Highway 17 just north of Riceboro. The LCDA secured a grant to help with road construction, but even a little more than a mile of road is projected to cost $5.7 million.

“That’s a lot, for a less than two-mile road,” Grant said.

Bringing water and sewer to its holdings can be tricky — and expensive. The LCDA is looking at how it can fund the work it is eyeing for future industries.

“We’re working hard to develop infrastructure responsibly that will allow us to locate businesses here that expand our tax base and create better, more higher-paying jobs to the best of our ability,” Grant said. “That can be complicated. It’s expensive.”

The development authority discussed with county commissioners the possibility of a wastewater treatment plant that could serve Tradeport East and other coming developments in an effort to “provide modern water and sewer to our community and allow for investment that would not otherwise come,” Grant said.

The LCDA also tries to foster its existing businesses and industries, Grant added.

“Local industry support is a critical part of what we do,” she said. “Your best clients are the ones who are already here.”

In an effort to engender stronger ties with the community, the LCDA has started an advisory panel, with ex-officio members such as Liberty County Administrator Joseph Mosley, Hinesville City Manager Ryan Arnold, Liberty Regional Medical Center Derek Rozier and Liberty Schools Superintendent Debra Frazier, along with local business leaders.

“We wanted the opportunity to include people who are working in the community and hear from them things that might be happening in the community,” Grant said. “Maybe there were ways we weren’t connecting in the past.”

LCDA staff is working with auditors to catch up with several years of audits, and Grant praised her staff for their hard work in all aspects, calling them “incredibly important.”

The LCDA also should be getting soon the results of its study on the county’s tax structure. The LCDA partnered with Georgia Tech’s Center for Economic Development Research to look at the taxes.

“I have friends in Richmond Hill complaining about taxes,” Grant said. “We want to understand it to the best of our ability.”